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Asparagaceae Family:

Asparagaceae Juss.

The Asparagaceae Family was named and described by Antoine Laurent de Jussieu in Genera Plantarum in 1789.

Plants of the World Online lists 119 accepted genera in the Asparagaceae Family. The Wikipedia says there are 119 genera with around 2,900 combined species.

It’s complicated to explain, but so far seven well-recognized genera were basically ripped apart, renamed and reclassified as a result of the APG II system of 2003 & APG III system of 2009. I am not sure if the APG IV system of 2016 had a further effect or not. Now the seven reclassified families have been renamed and are now considered subfamilies of the Asparagaceae Family. Some authorities recognize the subfamilies while others do not which can be somewhat confusing when doing research. You would be surprised what genera are classified in the same family now, such as Agave and Asparagus. They appear to have nothing in common to us “normal” gardeners. Then again, what is normal? Classification of plants goes much deeper than what we can see with our eyes.

Plants of the World Online names only four synonyms of the Asparagaceae Family: Agavaceae, Dracaenaceae, Eriospermaceae, and Hyacinthaceae. Well, they are new and still uploading data… The second and third name aren’t in the subfamily list from the Wikipedia. Maybe there was some other reclassification prior to the APG II system. Maybe APG I? Maybe at some point there were only four. GEEZ! Not going to get any more technical. I will just leave it to the experts to hash it out then pass on their results even though I may be completely confused. After all, if I just started doing research, I would have no clue what has happened anyway.

Click on the Wikipedia link below for more information and their links for further study. I have a headache now.

Plants of the World Online only lists the Asparagaceae Family and all former families are listed as synonyms. When I attempted to find information about the new subfamily name, it says “no results”.

For further information on this family of plants, please click on the links below. They take you directly to the page for the family.